Low voltage indicators, worth the $$?

F

flyingpotato666

Member
So I talked to this guy at a local hobby center and he said I dont really need a low voltage indicator on my quad since I would "be able to feel when the batteries are almost dead" as in when I feel like the motors are slow or something I'd know that the lipos are almost drained, so I would then stop and charge. Since I have no experience with flying quads, I want to know if this is true and if its safe to do so..
 
flyingpotato666 said:
So I talked to this guy at a local hobby center and he said I dont really need a low voltage indicator on my quad since I would "be able to feel when the batteries are almost dead" as in when I feel like the motors are slow or something I'd know that the lipos are almost drained, so I would then stop and charge. Since I have no experience with flying quads, I want to know if this is true and if its safe to do so..
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On a plane perhaps, but it is not hard to ruin a battery on a quad. Many ESCs have LVC enabled so when you hit a certain voltage your quad will drop from the sky like a rock, and if you are high enough shatter on the ground like glass.

As you can see I find low voltage alarms good for a quad, 1$ and you can save a battery or a quad. ZOn a plane you can feel it, and if the ESC kicks off you just glide into a landing.
 
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I'm here merely to reiterate what others have already said.

I wasn't familiar with these things either until a few weeks ago, but was introduced to them/encouraged to use them by users on this forum.

Forget a quad - I won't even drive an R/C car without first attaching one of these things now… they've got to be one of the cheapest forms of insurance available - to protect not only your expensive battery, but also your expensive vehicle.
 
Funny that we bring this up today, my quad has a small problem with the ESCs kicking off when I punch the throttle on a lower battery, so it crashed landed today (I was able to drop the throttle and stabilize before hitting the ground) and after a half hour of searching a field the Low voltage alarm kicked in and I found it. I was using one of the plug in types until I get the KK one fixed. So the moral is disable LVC whenever possible and use a low voltage alarm.
 
I'm new to this stuff but a low volt alarm has so many benefits for such a little cost. Do you want that last big high climb right before you lose power? or even have to walk a few hundred yards to go get your quad vs. being able to fly it back and change out batteries.
 
Are there any visual indicators for LV at the moment? What I mean is a bright LED that you could mount on the bottom of the quad and when it changes from green to red you know it is time to land?
 
CopoNova said:
Are there any visual indicators for LV at the moment? What I mean is a bright LED that you could mount on the bottom of the quad and when it changes from green to red you know it is time to land?
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Not much point in having even more lights staying on if the battery is ok, the display already stays on and these LV units also already come with a red LED that indicates low voltage as well as the loud beeper. I suppose you could remove the existing LED, add wires, and power an external LED (even a more bright one at that) which could then be mounted on the bottom of the quad if you wanted to.
 
Gyro Doctor said:
Not much point in having even more lights staying on if the battery is ok, the display already stays on and these LV units also already come with a red LED that indicates low voltage as well as the loud beeper. I suppose you could remove the existing LED, add wires, and power an external LED (even a more bright one at that) which could then be mounted on the bottom of the quad if you wanted to.
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What you say makes sense, I guess it isn't smart to keep another device on when you are trying to conserve battery power.

So, what if it only comes on when the battery is low? (something with a 10 mA load) I have been considering building a comparator circuit that would toggle a light in that situation, but didn't want to reinvent the wheel if it already exists.

I am still a novice builder/pilot and thought it makes sense to have something like this.
 
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